This Location-Based Startup Is Almost As Big As Foursquare -- But You Probably Haven't Heard Of It

Life360 co-founder Chris
Hulls used to be in the Air Force.Chris Hulls

Apps like
Highlight have made location sharing more popular, but one
startup has been using that technology for years and it's nearly
as big as Foursquare.

Life360, which lets
families keep track of each other's location using their
smartphones, currently has 13.7 million users. The
company gathers over 150 million location points each day
from their app.

Kids can check into the app so parents don't have to worry that
they arrived to their destination.

"Life360 also has pioneered the technology needed to do this
without draining your battery, which is a major complaint of most
ambient geo apps today," Life360 co-founder Chris Hulls
said.

Hulls pointed out that the app has millions of users, and wasn't
made with any social or viral features. The accounts are limited
to just your immediate family so there is no network effect, he
said.

Hulls is thinking beyond tracking the movements
of people.

"Soon, Life360 users will be
able to do things like see where their car is in
the Life360 app without needing
any new hardware," Hulls said.

Bill Ford, an
executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, joined Life360 as an
investor.

The tracking app is available for iPhone and
Android,
but it can be used to track any phone that can receive text
messages. The service is free if you want periodic updates, but
for real-time updates you need to pay $4.99 a month.